Tag: health

When you stay in a hotel, the reason you stay there is for the bed, and nine out of ten times the bed is all wrong. You get given some rubbish pillows that feel like they’ve been folded in half one to many times and a duvet that is more of throw for your sofa than anything else. Well the Village Hotel in Dudley, Birmingham is not that kind of place, my room had at least a 14.5 tog duvet and the pillows to match, that is something that’s rare to find in a one nighter hotel.

If Premier Inn was a 4 star work trip hotel then this place is easy a 4.5 and its simple, this place has everything you need for a good nights sleep after a long day of work, from a gym and spa area that actually has a swimming pool deep enough to dive in (not that I went swimming), you could then head back to your rooms and be pleasantly surprised that the showers they actually worked and for once didn’t give you third degree burns or worst frost bite, you are met with a constant supply of warm to hot water that actually does the job. One thing that has to be noted is the fact that they don’t have a luggage trolley, which makes my life 15 x harder. Most of the time when I stay in hotels its with a lot of camera equipment and instead of carrying 20 bags through receiption and into my room it’s nice to just put them on a trolley and push them around, even more so annoying in the morning.

After some excersise and a great shower time to head down and get some food. That’s when I found out about something that would put a smile on anyone’s face, I’m talking about game day chicken wings and beer all for something like £7. what more could you want, and what’s more suprising is the fact that this deal is in a hotel especially when they are showing all the football, so that being said I did enjoy the wings and also a few beers. So I will blame that on the bad grammer and poor spelling mistake into post. but if you couldnt tell for the past 300 words, this hotel is really good and I would definitely recommend it if you need somewhere to stay in Dudley, Birmingham.

Heres my photos of the hotel, enjoy.

– beer and wings all for £7 something, what could possibly go wrong with that –– look at that duvet, perfect. every one stop shop hotel around the country should take note –– I know its pretty stripy but I kind of like it. Amy can we do this with the bedroom –

So after the bad Thursday I decided that Friday wouldn’t be the same and that the only thing I could do was to smash it pants off the last working day of the week and book in for an afternoon sports massage, my thinking behind that was I needed to sort my back and arm out after a busy 6 weeks of work and instead of me trying to sort it out, just give my body to a professional and get them to work on it and to be honest, it was the best decision, I came away from the massage feeling like I had given my body a full workout but without burning any energy and just laying face down on a bed, from now on im going to try and book at least one massage every month just to keep everything ticking over properly. the masseuses did say i needed one every two weeks but unless I take out a loan or start selling stuff on the black market I don’t think that is going to happen, but if you are in london and want to get you body fixed up and working to full capacity again or even just give your muscles some lovin then definitely check out Ten Health and Fitness, they are magicians. (they are the guys that also helped me with my leg) they are literally the perfect one stop shop.

Heres a link to their website: https://www.ten.co.uk/

After that my plan was to get off at Liverpool street and walk home taking photos on the way which turned out to be a great idea, because just after Brick Lane it started to rain quite heavily but at the same time the sun was shining so i managed to photograph my first every rainbow, and in such a cool place. It was literally right over an old Church inbetween the spire and the roof, making for some pretty cool photos. after all that it is safe to say that Ive properly managed to turn this week around. Now im spending my saturday doing fun things like bills and some DIY, what else are Saturdays for. I have to admit its just nice to be sat on my sofa not moving.

Heres my photos, hope you like them.

– can you see the Rainbow? how cool is that?– I love it when the rain comes but its still sunny –– these guys are magicians –

Thursday morning and last day of shooting for the week, I literally couldn’t be happier. For some reason this week just seems to have taken it out of me and now I’m ready to get a decent sleep and hide away from the terrible weather than seems to be on its way again.

Back when i had a life, my week day plan was always to wake up like 45 minutes earlier, grab a coffee, sit on my sofa and open up my laptop and just start that days blog post but over the past 3 months that has really changed and now its just about getting the posts done at anytime I could. Well today I have decided to do my best and sit on the sofa with a coffee and spent some time just writing these posts, its probably my favourite way of doing it, and I maybe running out of time pretty quickly but you can never rush and artist (unless you have a floor manager and production team that would kick your arse if your not at work for your call time).

to lighten the mood a bit, I want to show you guys this morning are from… Yes you guessed it the other day at the beach in Norfolk, I promise its my last day of showing photos for that walk, but taking Landscape photos of the sea one on side and these really colourful muddy cliffs on the other with overcast clouds, I think really sets the mood and almost gives them a timeless feel. like those people on the beach in the first picture could almost of been there at anytime in the past 100 years, theres nothing in shot that I can see which would give away that its 2018.

I hope everyone is having a good week, here some the last of the photos from the weekend.

– this photo to me, could of been taken at anytime in the past 100 years –– I should really take more photos with things in the foreground, I think its a cool style of photography –– just a crow sitting on a pile of sand. I tried to sneak up on it to get a better shot but it saw me and flew away –

So tonights Premier Inn is somewhere near a motorway around a town called Hatfeild, thats as much as I know about where Im staying to be honest and out of all the Premier Inns Ive stayed in, this one could be the best for customer service. The food was a bit slow but you cant judge a hotel off of one slight mistake, the rooms are clean and the food was actually pretty enjoyable. Today I decided to try something that has been a bit controversial and go for the fire noddles with chicken ( for an extra £2), and it was actually a pretty good choice and right now I know all those Wagamammas fans out there will be saying ” but it doesn’t have a thing on wagamammas” but thats not true.

With a place like wagamammas your standards are a lot higher but with some where like Premier inn its just about getting some sort of food inside you and today thats exactly what i got, good, kind of fresh food at a decent price. what more could you want.

I know this is going to sound like a first world problem and to be honest its not something thats a deal breaker but one thing I dont like about Premier Inn, is the length of their corridors and numbering systems. I know that they need to fit a certain number of room in but please guys add a few short cuts or something because when someone like me who travels with 10 bags and 15 peli cases needs a room we also need it to be easily accessible from the reception which 9 out of 10 times is not that case.

But for all its worth I would have to give this Premier Inn a 8/10 and a 4.5 star travel rating, its a place that does everything it says on the tin and also has a really good sized car park, which is perfect for long wheel base vans.

Hatfeild premier Inn on the M25 you have served me well.

– these corridors are just a bit too long for someone with so many bags –– the best sight someone can see after a long days work, the famous premier inn bed –– my dinner the fire cracker noddles with chicken – pretty decent and quite healthy –

Well I suppose its fair to say that I definitely all kicked off again yesterday right? that snow came out of no where and really started playing with peoples mentions, even Waterloo a train station that has around 250,000 people use it each day, decided that the prospect of snow on a Friday was too much and had no choice but to shut up shop. fair play though, I would probably do that if I knew i could. after all its Friday and I don’t use Waterloo station so I cant really rant about if, but if I did have to use Waterloo last night then it this would probably be a very different blog.

For a friday though it was pretty hectic in a non hectic kind of way, after working in east London and having quite a good finishing time, I then headed into town for a different gig and I have to admit I hadn’t done much research on but turnt out to be a pretty good laugh. Im not really sure if I can say what it was yet, so I might just leave that one for a few weeks and when its out in the open, Ill let you guys know and we can talk about it then. Sorry but thats just the way of the world.

I have got a killer plan today, today im basically doing a really Life admin day, including haircut, gym signing up, clothes shopping and some finances. Im then going to finish up by cooking a meal Ive never cooked before and sitting down to enjoy a good movie, I know that doesnt sound too fun, but I really want to start saving some money for a Leica and maybe going out drinking isnt the best thing for that. I really want to take some cool photos today so I might travel out when its dark and have some fun with the nifty 50mm lens. who knows.

Heres my photos from yesterday.

– I love seeing bikes with snow on just one side, it looks really cool and abandoned –– before the gig, I stopped off for coffee at this really cool cafe in Soho, it was literally full of people speak Chinese and all they served where Marcha cakes –– see here are the Match cakes! if you ever walk around Soho and want a coffee / tea / matcha cake, you should stop here. Im not sure what the place is called, but you should try and find it! –

Well thats christmas done with and now its just time to sit down and enjoy some christmas movies while waiting for New Years to come around. One of the best things about christmas is the fact that there is no limit to the amount of food you can eat.

Today was spent at my sisters over in Petts wood and to be honest it was pretty perfect, Flo has got to that age where is actually enjoys christmas and can open presents in previous years it was a bit of a lost cause getting her to open anything, but this year there was no stopping her. There was kind of a running theme for my presents todo I got both an RC car which I cant wait to test out on some jumps and maybe a stair case or two and also a Drone that is definitely something Im going to be flying around London in the next few weeks, so get ready to see a few photos of a drone in a few places that maybe a drone shouldn’t be flown in. its almost like I’m 15 again and santa has brought me new toys to play with.

Tomorrow we’re hitting the road early tomorrow and heading up to Cambridge to see my auntie and cousins which will no doubt be a good laugh. Im only up there for a night so think I’m going to have to make the most of it but that more than enough time to eat the fridge clean and drink all the beer. So Michelle if your reading this, I hope your ready for my arrival.

As its now mid night on christmas and im sat up writing this post I think ill leave it on one last note, thank you my Dad, Mum, Esme, Miles and obviously FLO for a christmas to remember.

I hope everyone had a great christmas and got everything you wanted! Im also now trying to think of a good New Years Resolution so if anyone has any fun resolutions let me know!

Heres my photos, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

_ i tried to spell Xmas with a sparkler but wrote it the wrong way and then run out of sparklers so this is the best I could do –

– flo giving mooney and hug (I think) –– it would be a christmas blog without a photo of the tree –

this is my 200th blog post, 200. thats how many days Ive done this in a row without a day off, thats at least 600 edited photos (some days I post more if its been a good day) and that with an average of 350 words per day thats a total of 70,000 words!! how many words is a distinction again, I cant remember? but I think its fair to say even though Ive written roughly 70,000 words, those people with a degree are still probably smarter than me.

When I first started this blog post challenge I was always thinking what I would do when I got to the 200 post mark, and for ages I thought I would have a cake and launch some fire works out of it or something, I definitely didn’t think I would be working in America and writing this post in Florida, I only really remembered that it was the 200 mark, yesterday when I saw it was B199.

Now this is a bit of a double celebration, because since I injured my leg 164 days ago, running a half marathon where completely screwed the tendon that connects my quad to my hip and basically had to learn how to use that leg again, I’ve been on a diet of burgers, pizza and beer. Well today was the end to that era and because I got up early and ran 5 miles before work. My time 45:13, which is an OK time but as Amy says its not about the timings at the moment, its just about getting back to how I was but Im pretty happy with the time and comparing it to my fastest 5 miles, Ive only got to shave like 2 minutes per mile off my time, which is completely do able.

The way I celebrated my success at reaching 200 post and running 5 miles was by doing the best thing anyone can ever do after running in 23 degree heat and thats by jumping in a cold pool straight after, our hotel has a pool and well, theres nothing like that feeling, made better by the fact I ran in some old trainers where my toe pokes out the end. so taking them off by the pool was probably the highlight, my feet where dead, but in a good way, they deserved every second of pool time.

Im now eager to get back out running but know that I need to take it slow, but I think if I set myself a goal of running 10 miles a week for the next month or so and then see how I feel after that, plus a few physo sessions in between, I should be OK.

Anyway heres some photos from my run today! todays been a good day, because it feels like I have completed two massive personal goals Ive had for a long time! and in a pretty cool part of the world!

– Left: my person best – right: my time today, ok for a first proper distance run since my injury –– this photo was taken from inside the pool because I can and it felt right, those £45 trainers have done me well and still have a few miles left in them –– nothing beats the early morning sun –– run past this, seeing old classic american cars in this state always makes me want to buy one and restore it –